Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire! (1-27-14)

Oi e Bom dia!!!

It is really weird to be typing English and have the red lines everywhere.  But I AM HERE!!!! in Porto Alegre actually.  I am in the Intercap ward in the Partenon Stake.  It is really sweet.  My comp, Elder Thiago doesn't speak English and neither do the other 2 missionaries that we live with.  THE STRUGGLE!!!  But it is sweet.  I just love Brazilians.  THEY ACTUALLY SAY MY NAME RIGHT!!!!!  Most people say McKay, but they say MACKAY with an accent.  It is sweet.  And they think that I am a Brazilian from Sao Paulo.  That is until I open my mouth.  Then my terrible accent kicks in haha.  But it is sweet here.  I LOVE THE FOOD!!!  So great!!!

The plane ride was very long and tiring.  I actually didn't leave until like 5 on Monday (the 20th) so I spent the day with the Zone Leaders in Baton Rouge, Elders Knowlton and Campbell.  Then I went to Dallas and then Sao Paulo and then Porto Alegre.  And I met other missionaries in Dallas.  I even sat next to a Sister going to Sao Paulo.  Then when I got to Porto Alegre it was like 112 degrees.  NAO GOSTO DISSO!!!!! But it is cool.

The work is good here.  We have a ton of investigators and they teach us here to baptize in 3 weeks!  Elder Thiago gets kinda sad when we get rejected on the street and he sings a hymn out loud and I just think, "I was born in this, molded by it."  haha.  But the members are really good here and really want to help.  Which is awesome!

Sorry I can't say more, but I have very limited time here so I shall depart.  Enjoy the pics!!  Eu amo voces!  Ate mais!!!  I LOVE THAT I CAN HAVE THE ACCENTS ON THE WORDS NOW!!!

And this is my address!

Missao Porto Alegre Sul
Avenida Princesa Isabel 342-B Santana
Porto Alegre-RS 90620-000
Brasil

Have fun with that!  Ate Mais!

Elder Mackay

 The view from Elder Mackay's bed.

 The Porto Alegre skyline from a member's house.

Elder Thiago (Chiago) & Elder Mackay.

He's On His Way to Brazil!! (1-20-14)

I (Kristin, Elder Mackay's mom) was able to talk to Jason quickly this afternoon just before he left for the airport.  It was so good to hear his voice!  He sounded excited, anxious, and just looking forward to this new adventure on his mission.  I have missed him so much since he began his mission the end of June.  I didn't think this was possible but I miss him more than ever!!  I think it is because he is leaving the country and will be there for a while.  I know that the Lord is looking over him and will take care of him.  I'm so proud of him and the man he is becoming.  He is enjoying serving others and learning what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.  He has a long trip to Porto Alegre which will take him nearly 24 hours!!

I will update his new address and info when I hear from him once he is safely in Brazil.  Thank you all for keeping him in your prayers and checking out this blog about his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!!  The gospel of Jesus Christ is real, His love is abundant, and all He asks of us is to come unto Him and follow His example.  In a day of such difficulty and shifting principles, Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever and He is always there.  Peace can be found in following Him.  What a blessing to have in our lives!

Elder Mackay at the Baton Rouge airport.

Oh Mundungo (1-13-14)

Boa Tarde Minha Familia e Meus Amigos!

This week was a crazy one.  First off we had 3 lessons with our investigator Porfirio and with Minor's mom Irma.  They were all really good lessons, even though Porfirio and Irma are being annoying.  We don't know if they are hooking up or not, but Irma gave Porfirio  a pet name and calls him Porfi.  BARF!!!  And they will just start talking to each other about whatever we are teaching and go off on a tangent for like 4 minutes.  AND SHE IS ONLY ON VACATION HERE FROM HONDURAS!!!!  She leaves around the same time I do, but she has been a real help for getting us in the door, because she loves us.  She loves us so much that she decided, with the help of Elder Drollinger, to make us mundungo.  Which is a soup, with corn on the cob, potatoes, bananas, yucca roots, and cow stomach.  COW STOMACH!!!!!  And this has been a good 2 weeks in the making.  Elder Drollinger was all like aw yea it will be cool.  And then the whole time he was all like, "I'm so sorry Elder."  It was a struggle.  I have never eaten anything that slimy before.  The struggle is real.  And she didn't believe me when I said it was good, which the soup itself is not that bad, just the stomach, and she thinks that Elder Drollinger loves the stuff.  Haha.  Good times here in North Metairie.

We also were finally able to see Adolfo who we have been trying to see for the whole 11 weeks I have been here.  We taught the restoration and I offered him help with math because he struggles with that and is trying to get his GED.  So he had better accept my offer this week or he won't get help haha.

And we also found some new investigators, Omar and his wife.  They are from Mexico and they are super legit!  They have 4 boys and their house is crazy!  In the middle of the lesson their youngest, age 3ish, spilled an entire cup of Sunny D all over Omar, and he was so chill as he carried his crying kid to his room, of which the kid never came back out haha.  HE LAYS DOWN THE LAW!!

Well that is about it for this week.  Amazingly I am not trunky yet.  My quad actually brought that up in comp inventory how that is a strength and how they are trunky for me haha.  But I did get my hands on some guanana.  IT IS GLORIOUS!!!  Brasil here I come...in a week!!!!!!

Entao, eu amo voces e fique classy!!

Elder Mackay

I LOVE THE MOON!!!!!

 Christmas display in Metairie, LA.

 Elder Mackay playing in the snow.

A cool picture of the moon.

I Got My Visa! (1-6-14)

Ano Novo!

Oi, Tudo Mundo,

Well this week was a slow one, with New Years and all.  But we were able to see Minor and Porfirio.  We saw them twice actually and we taught the restoration and then read 1 Nephi 4 with them.  And those lessons went really good.  Minor is actually reading the Bible everyday.  So that is really great but we are trying to get him to read the Book of Mormon as well.  But I think that with both of those lessons that they are finally starting to realize how important the scriptures are, after all, 1 Nephi 4 is about Nephi cutting off a man's head for them!  So that was sweet!  New Year's eve was crazy.  Everyone was partying so we didn't teach so we went home and hung out, played some Risk, and then at midnight it sounded like WWIII out there!  THERE WERE SOOO MANY FIREWORKS IT WAS RIDICULOUS!!!!!!  It was sweet though.  Then New Year's day we didn't teach anyone because they were all partying or drunk.  So we went to a member's house and watched the Rose Bowl, President gave the whole mission permission...don't worry, which was fun.  I hate football, but it was fun.  Everyone wanted Stanford to win but I was all like, "there is no way a tree can kill a Spartan."  (When Elder Mackay was younger, when filling out his NCAA March Madness bracket, he would choose the team whose mascot could beat the other team's mascot!!)  So Michigan St. won haha!  Other than that there really wasn't much else that happened.  Until yesterday....

So I got a call from President Wall, and he told me that I got my visa and that I leave on the 20th!!!!  I GOT MY VISA!!!!  I think that it was that the Lord got tired of me asking for it, or that he thinks I'm too cool for Mardi Gras and that I should go straight to Carnival, or that I learned what I needed here.  It is probably the last one haha!!  But yeah.  I GOT MY VISA!!!!!  I AM SO EXCITED/SAD/NERVOUS GAHHH!!!!  So yeah that was this week.

Well I love yall and I hope that yall had a very nice New Year.  Stay classy, and remember if you have failed your rersolutions, just start again tomorrow :)  Tchau!

Elder Mackay

 Elder Mackay's companion, Elder Drollinger put this in his planner.  Elder Mackay is in a group of four missionaries since he was a visa waiter.  

Elder Walker & Elder Mackay waiting for Elder Mackay's mom to answer her phone so he could tell her that his visa was in!

6 Month Mark (12-30-13)

Feliz Ano Novo and Happy 6 Month to me!

How yall makin' out?

Well this week was a good one.  Very slowish, with Christmas Eve and Christmas and everything like that.  Christmas was good.  I was able to skype my family which was sweet.  I got some Christmas cards, the picture of my brother in my family's card shows that he is a baller.  I taught him so well.  And my district came to our apartment and we did tapout yoga for our workout and then opened our presents and played Risk 2110.  The best form of Risk.  You can invade and take over the moon.  Then we had 3 dinner appointments.  It was ridiculous.  Thanksgiving all over again.  So that was Christmas.

So we have not had any stand out lessons with our investigators.  We have just really really read the Book of Mormon with them.  But we have a ton of contacting because we have very few people to visit.  So we were contacting this Hispanic and got a return appointment.  Well it was raining and we are on bikes.  This white guy named Nickel asks if we are Jehovas Witness's and if we know that it is raining.  We say that we are Mormons and then he invites us in to teach him the difference between Mormons and other Christians.  So he takes us in, we meet his very pregnant wife and kid and we start talking.  Then he tells us his life story how he was a meth addict and came to God.  Then a friend comes in and he shouts, "WHERE IS MY MONEY?  DO YOU HAVE ALL OF IT OR DO YOU NEED TO MAKE PAYMENTS?"  We thought it was a drug deal.  It was for a welder.  Then his mom comes in and he says, "Stay and hear what the Mormons have to say."  She says no, then he says "If you stay under my roof you follow my rules.  Just like when I was growing up you said that to me all the time!"  Then she says, "And look how well that worked" and walked out the door.  Then he tries to give us venison jerky and can't find it so he tells us to come Tuesday (New Year's Eve) and he will feed us venison sausage and burgers.  A lot of other stuff happened which I have no time to explain.  But in between all this we were able to teach about the restoration and he and his wife were interested.  So we are going back tomorrow to eat deer.  ESTOU MUITO ANIMADO!!

And we were contacting last night there were a ton of fireworks and we had no clue why.  So we ask some people who were lighting them off and they said with a "are you stupid" tone, "the Saints won, and it is ALMOST New Year's".  So that proves, boys and girls, that football is the #1 religion, followed by Catholic.

Well that is all I have got for this week.  Thank yall for the Christmas cards.  They were awesome.  Have fun on New Year's and stay classy.

Elder Mackay

 Christmas Day fun!

Packages of love for Christmas!!

A Christmas Miracle! (12-23-13)

Boa Tarda,

Well this week was good, but also kinda slow.  It is like people like to vacation around this time or something.  Actually they don't just work a ton haha.  But we did have some cool stuff.

First off, we got dropped by Mario, a less active.  He had some court fines to pay and he said we couldn't visit him if the church couldn't help him with that.  So it was sad, but Elder Drollinger and I laughed about it the whole way home.  We had to find some way to enjoy the situation.  So yeah.  That was the only real bummer this week.

Then, WE HAVE A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!!  Uma milagre Natal!!!!  So we visit Porfirio, but he isn't home, so we teach Irma instead.  Super sweet lesson.  After the lesson when we are about to give the prayer she asks us to pray for Minor, her son who lives in that apartment who is an investigator but who hasn't sat in on the lessons, because he has some problems.  So we pray for him and then leave.  So we go back the next day and they were cooking so we couldn't teach , but Irma was all like I know that prayer works because right after you left all of Minor's problems with his wife in Honduras went away!  And I know it was because of your prayer and your priesthood.  Then Minor comes and he is all like, I'm going to come to every one of your lessons.  Can you come on the 23, 25, and 26?  And we were like, SAY WHAT?!?!  IT IS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!

Then we went caroling after church yesterday, in the pouring rain.  Gotta love the fact that it is 60 degrees here! haha

Well that is about all for this week.  I hope yall have a very Merry Christmas and yall stay classy!

Elder Mackay

P.S.  The first 2 pics are of us at Buffalo Wild Wings, my comp did and completed the Blazin Challenge.  And the last is my suit pants after biking home in the pouring rain.

Still 60 to 70 degrees here!! (12-16-13)

Feliz Natal

How yall making out?

Well this week was a lot slower than last week.  It was still way good, just not a lot of lessons.  First off, I would just like to say that it doesn't feel like Christmas here, it is still 60 to 70 degrees here.  So that makes me question whether it is really December or not.

So this week we saw Mario (a less active), and some investigators Juan and Porfirio.  Those were all good lessons.  They are still not reading but I think that we are just starting to find our what their concerns are which is really good.  That way we can actually help them!  And I have started learning Spanish, so when I speak it I sound like an American, which is pretty bad and THEN I sound like a Brazilian because I pronounce everything like Portuguese!  The struggle is real.  The Spanish is coming slowly.  My focus is still on Portuguese, but around transfers I felt like I should learn Spanish so I am.

Not much happened other than that.  We have a mission Christmas devo/party tomorrow for the missionaries in the New Orleans English and Spanish zones.  SO I will get to see some of my LaPlace crew there, Elders Hansen and White.  Not my old comp though, he is in Denham Springs, north of here.  So I am excited for that!

Well I'm sorry that this is short, but not a lot has gone on this week.  But we did take some Christmas pictures as a district so I will include those.

Stay warm yall and Feliz Natal.

Stay Classy,

Elder Mackay

Jason (2nd from the right)

In the Big Easy for another 6 weeks (12-10-13)

HEYO!!!

Oi Tudo mundo,

So this week has been slow but productive at the same time.  So my comp, Elder Drollinger and Elder Crane have been sick.  I got a little of it, but not nearly as bad as they got it.  At least as of now, I hope I don't go through what they did.  So they stayed home a lot while Elder Walker, an 18 Year old...NEWB!!!  Haha jk jk.  He is awesome, and I went on a ton of exchanges.  And in total we taught 26 lessons which is a mission high for me.  But unfortunately, none came to church or to the Christmas party.  Sad day.  I hate agency sometimes, which is a bad thing to say because I love agency, but it is just frustrating sometimes.  haha.  But it is all good.  That just means we have to get some members in on the lessons, or at least that is what we hope that it means, haha.  So we taught a lot of lessons, but none of them were super awesome.  Well one was taught to Porfirio but Elder Drollinger and Walker taught that, so I don't know all the details, other than the spirit was strong.

So I am not getting transferred.  So I am staying in the Big Easy for another 6 weeks!  I really like it here and Elder Drollinger so that is really good.

Man, I feel bad, nothing much really happened.  It has started the terrible roller-coaster weather here.  And I thought Idaho was bad with it.  Well here it will be 75 as the high and then THAT SAME DAY it will go to 40.  Both with 99.9% humidity.  There was a lot of fog this week.  It makes you wet really quick on a bike haha.  So we went to the levee by the lake after the Christmas Devo from SLC and it was super dark and super foggy so we took a sweet picture.  It will be included with the email.

We also had the ward Christmas party this past weekend.  It was a play, but I don't know what went down.  It was Spanish of course.  All I know is that it started at 8 instead of 6.  Honduran time I guess.  And Santa was there.  I didn't know that there was a Honduran Santa.  Haha that was fun.  That picture will be included as well.

Well that is about all for this week.  I hope yall have a good and productive week, and stay classy.

Eu amo voces!

Elder Mackay

 Waiting to visit with Santa

 Riding on the levee by the Lake in the fog

All I want for Christmas...

I was stuffed like the Thanksgiving turkey (12-02-13)

How yall makin' out?

That is southern for what's up.  I hear it from black people alot, and it is sweet.

Well this week was sweet.  We had four meals for Thanksgiving and that was a struggle.  All the people that fed us are Honduran and they do a hybrid meal.  They mix Honduran with southern.  So they take the Mac and Cheese of the south and also make turkey and ham and a TON of rice.  And that is about all they make.  My first Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes :'( that was sad.  BUT ALL THE FOOD WAS SUPER FILLING!!!!!  AND I HAD TO KEEP EATING!!!!  Point is, I was stuffed by the end of the night.  So that was my biggest adventure of the night.

As for lessons we had some sweet ones.  We visited and had four lessons last night between 5:30 and 8:20.  That is a mission high for me and that brought our weekly total to 19.  Our mission goal is 20 and that has been the closest  I have EVER gotten to it.  But our best lesson was with Wilmer, and we talked about the after death part of the Plan of Salvation.  And it was sweet.  The spirit was super strong and I understood most of the lesson.  And I gave a short testimony at the end in Portuguese.  But it was a sweet lesson, he accepts basically everything we teach and it is sweet.  And the funny thing is that we have met him three times when we knock on his door and right as we are about to leave he walks up behind us to get into his house.  Super funny.  And I am learning how to pray and testify in Spanish because I made a deal with Porfirio, another investigator, that if I did, he has to give the next closing prayer.  So we will see how that works.  But it is hard to say Spanish words without saying the Portuguese.  THE STRUGGLE!

Well that is about it from the Big Easy.  Other than that my companion has been sick.  SO that is fun.  But all is well here.

Eu amo voces, I love yall, and stay classy

Elder Mackay

P.S.  I got a letter from my cousin Talmage who asked if I have been stoned yet.  MADE MY DAY!!!  And his dad said that his kids wonder if I baptize alligators when I don't baptize people.  The answer if no, but I have kissed one!  Hahaha

 Jason and his companions at dinner

 Jason and his companions

'Tis the season in the bayou!